... Tim Cavanaugh at Reason re-evaluates the auteur theory, "that durable French
import which holds that the director is the author of the film."

Cavanaugh's piece is a bit of a ramble — and I look askance at his phrase "a bunch of socialist critics" — but I nod at his assertion that no one person can claim credit for creating a movie:

Writers are supposed to hate the auteur theory, but my
reason for thinking it is of little value has nothing to do with
any confidence in scripts. The problem is that for once the Academy
has it right in giving the Best Picture Oscar to the producer. In
all but a vanishingly small number of movies, the producer(s)
is/are responsible for the largest share of the outcome.....

What we really need is a death-of-the-auteur theory. Making a movie is such a crap shoot,
involving so many parties with conflicting motives, that we should
consider it a fluke when something gets made that holds together as well
as My Cousin Vinny. An actual masterpiece (whatever your
choice of masterpiece may be) has to be considered a heroically
improbable event, and one that depends on both the movie itself and the
audience’s response to it.

As far as I can tell, movie-making, especially Hollywood style, provides enough proof of Chaos Theory, Quantum Uncertainty Principles, and Alternate History Butterfly Effects to put 89% of theoretical physicists out of work.

On a related note of high interest: the New York Times recently talked with Hoberman about The Village Voice and film culture in "Changing Science of Movie-ology."

I'm a Seattle-based writer who enjoys, well, a lot of things: movies, theater, books, astronomy, science fiction, a sense of humor, the lambent amber of firelight through Bowmore Darkest Islay, dogs, the combination of chocolate and orange....

"Jack Cole's 'Plastic Man' belongs high on any adult's How to Avoid Prozac list, up there with the best of S.J. Perelman, Laurel and Hardy, Damon Runyon, Tex Avery and the Marx Brothers." — Art Spiegelman, The New Yorker

"You know what your problem is? It's that you haven't seen enough movies. All of life's riddles are answered in the movies.” — Steve Martin, Grand Canyon

Nick: "I'm a hero. I was shot twice in the Tribune."Nora: "I read you were shot five times in the tabloids."Nick: "It's not true. He didn't come anywhere near my tabloids."— Myrna Loy and William Powell, The Thin Man

"I always dress appropriately and impeccably for all occasions. I would show you a snapshot of myself in a G-string, taken at Simm-La, with a flying wombat, dingo dog and a wily platypus." — Professor Posthlewhistle (W.C. Fields)

"Humor can get in under the door while seriousness is still fumbling at the handle." — G.K. Chesterton